Entering the 2011 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season finale, only two remain. Homestead-Miami Speedway and Kentucky Speedway.
In 12 starts at Homestead, Jeff Gordon has five top-five finishes and nine top-10s – but he has yet to win at the 1.5-mile track in NASCAR’s top division (Gordon won a Nationwide event – then called the Busch Series – here in 2000).
The 85-time race winner now has victories at a series-high 21 of the 23 tracks currently on the schedule, with the newly added Kentucky Speedway event being the only other facility where Gordon has yet to visit Victory Lane.
“I like the South Florida area and the track,” said Gordon, driver of the No. 24 Drive To End Hunger Chevrolet. “The variable banking allows us to really search around for a line or a groove that will work, and I think good side-by-side racing comes along with that.
“We’ve had some good runs here, we just haven’t been able to win. Yet.”
The 2011 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship is down to two drivers – Carl Edwards and Tony Stewart – and that battle will be on Gordon’s mind during the 400-mile event. But the four-time NASCAR Cup Series champion also will be thinking about how to secure that elusive victory.
“You have to kind of take that [championship battle] into account,” said Gordon, who is 11th in the standings. “You don’t want to be the individual that costs somebody the championship because you did something dumb racing way back in the pack.
“But, for me, I don’t care who it is if I’m racing for the win. I’m going to race them hard – just like any other race – if a victory is on the line.”
A top-10 finish in the standings – and building momentum for 2012 – is also on the line for Gordon and the No. 24 team.
“We tried some things in Texas that seemed to have us moving in the right direction,” Gordon said. “We’ll see if we can improve on that this weekend.
“A solid run can give us confidence and momentum as we go into the off-season and 2012.”
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